Ahead and Behind Schedule

Hubby left town this afternoon for a few days which means I can dispense with my usual little to no cooking and not much laundry or cleaning...which means I can camp out in my workroom. Matt was outside all day in the beautiful weather playing his heart out with the neighbor kids, just as a boy should do. My behind is that I signed up for a journal swap. The journals were to be mailed out by April 27th. Above is the beautiful journal I received from Michelle Geller last week. Ain't it fab? I LOVE it. That's what I get for procrastinating-I could just curl up into the fetal position if I allowed myself to try to match her talent...

...fortunately I already had something in mind that I wanted to use this swap as a chance to try for a long time. I took off the front and back covers of an antique book and embellished/collaged the front. I forgot to photograph the inside but I used some antique papers that Hope gave me recently as the journal pages. They are very old company invoice pages that have turned a nice shade of sepia. I bound all with ribbons and used my new Crop-O-Dial to help. I hope she likes it, it's on the petite size, but size is not everything, right?

My ahead was that while I had all this almost limitless time in my workroom I tried another new project. This week is teacher/staff appreciation week at Matt's school. Last year I spent way too much money on...I can't even remember what. Last week Hope went took a class at the cottage in Leesburg given by Amy of Inspire Co. where she made three different kinds of May Day flower holders. I took detailed photos and copied one of the ideas for the teachers' gifts. This is the one that uses baby food jars. Not to waste the food I got blueberry apple sauce because I knew one of us would eat that. The others were made with tin cans and water bottle bottoms-genius all of them.

They were fun and easy to make and each has the (dur, as you can see) the teachers', principals', and administrative assistants' initials. I got the cutest little bags in great colors at Target today and will pop each one into a bag and make a fun tag to go on. I used all materials that I already had except the jars and the bags but I think it's a cute, sweet treat that I hope they like. And they aren't even due 'til Tuesday! I've got glitter and glue all over me which reminds me of Mellie. I don't have a recent update as I haven't seen her since Friday night. I heard that her dad might be coming to town this weekend plus other relatives so I thought I'd not interfer with family time. I hope to see her tomorrow and then I can do some updating. You are always on my mind sweet Mellie...

Walking With Dinosaurs

We went through many years of dino obsession with Matt starting at about age two. He got over playing with them a few years ago but does like to watch the Walking With Dinosaurs series on T.V. So when we saw this advertised we thought he'd like to see it. And he sure enough wanted to.

So Friday night we went and he loved it. He and Paul loved it. I stayed awake through the whole thing. It was fine. Remember they are the science wizards and I'm the artsy fartsy one.

Below was my favorite though, when the blew up all the colorful, strange-looking flowers and plants. The colors were wonderful.

Still, all told, it's good family fun.

Obsession with Spring Continues

I guess having spring come so late has left me obsessed with the new growth. Also the fact that I finally spackled the crack on the porch, then painted it, and painted the door a new color has gotten me inspired to add as much color as possible everywhere. So I'm loving my new door mat from Wisteria. The vinca is going crazy. I took these photos just a couple days ago and it has already just about doubled in size and is blooming like mad...

...as you can see again here.

And the cherry blossoms are gone but replaced by wonderful, fresh green leaves. I love spring!

Got Stress?

Then embellish cowgirl hats and caps. Step one: Tiptoe into workroom where the floor is covered with scraps from previous projects.

Step two: Use one or both feet to scrape away room to squeeze butt onto the floor to work.

Step three: Get some hats and caps and other stuff.

Step four: Plug in glue gun and get to work.

Step five: Finish. For a time you will be distracted from life.

Step six: Take a Xanax and pull on your big girl panties and get back out there, mainly to place them in your shop to make some coin for your cookie dough.